Parallel Lives

Olivier Schrauwen

$24.99

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From one of the world’s most celebrated cartoonists comes this unique collection of six wildly inventive short stories, each a surrealist tour de force that might collectively be dubbed “speculative memoir.” Schrauwen’s deadpan depictions of his and his progeny’s futures are presented with such brio and conviction that even the most jaded reader will ask himself: was the author really abducted by extraterrestrials? Is he actually able to dialogue with agents from the future? Does he truly receive coded messages in envelopes at breakfast? In spite of all rational perception, and in spite of the author’s obvious predilection for cartoon surrealism, Parallel Lives resonates as something more than simply the overheated imagination of an artist creating freely — it glows and hums and pulsates like a portal to another reality, and is the latest masterpiece in one of comics’ most distinctive bodies of work.

From one of the world’s most celebrated cartoonists comes this unique collection of six wildly inventive short stories, each a surrealist tour de force that might collectively be dubbed “speculative memoir.” Schrauwen’s deadpan depictions of his and his progeny’s futures are presented with such brio and conviction that even the most jaded reader will ask himself: was the author really abducted by extraterrestrials? Is he actually able to dialogue with agents from the future? Does he truly receive coded messages in envelopes at breakfast? In spite of all rational perception, and in spite of the author’s obvious predilection for cartoon surrealism, Parallel Lives resonates as something more than simply the overheated imagination of an artist creating freely — it glows and hums and pulsates like a portal to another reality, and is the latest masterpiece in one of comics’ most distinctive bodies of work.

"A dazzling and disorienting collection of short stories detailing the author’s interactions with the future. … By the final page, it’s the reader who has been abducted, by the cartoonist, captivated by witnessing time and space made malleable in Schrauwen’s hands." — The New Yorker

"A potent volume of linked and mangled autofictions, with delirious color chords you only find in dreams." — The New York Times

"In Schrauwen’s mind-inverting masterpiece Parallel Lives, the cartoonist’s alien abduction branches into a series of funny and frightening psychosexual ruminations on the nature of relationships that feel as fresh and strange as human life actually is." — The Guardian

"Schrauwen is one of the most provocative creators in the world of comics today, so it's not surprising that he would produce such a multidimensional work." — NPR Books

"Schrauwen returns with another heady and inventive collection tales... This sophisticated, inventive story cycle never fails to entertain, and strikes plenty of cerebral sparks." — Publishers Weekly